Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 19, 2024


A Massive Ridiculous Verdict vs. Trump, plus Biden Thinks Afghanistan Withdrawal was a Success & Biden's Weakness Led to Navalny Murder


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

155.53217

Word count

6,254

Sentence count

412

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

18

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz delivers a blistering response to the $355 million verdict against Donald Trump in the Avenatti v. Trump civil case, and explains why this was a political vendetta, not a fair and impartial jury verdict.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.360 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.080 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.400 Senator, we've got a packed show today.
00:00:11.640 Well, there's a lot happening right now.
00:00:13.260 We've all seen the blockbuster verdict that came out against Donald Trump,
00:00:17.060 over $355 million.
00:00:19.600 We're going to talk about what that means and what's next.
00:00:22.360 We've also seen the news that Joe Biden and his team believe they did nothing,
00:00:26.820 absolutely nothing wrong with Afghanistan, that that disgraceful withdrawal and surrender 1.00
00:00:32.420 was a model of success.
00:00:34.380 We'll talk about that.
00:00:35.640 And then the breaking news that Alexei Navalny, the dissident in Russia, has died in jail.
00:00:42.780 And we're going to talk about what caused that, what Joe Biden could have done to prevent it.
00:00:48.200 And all three of these stories we're going to explain have a common theme,
00:00:52.260 a thread intertwined between them all.
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00:02:27.180 Senator, let's start with Donald Trump, as you mentioned a moment ago.
00:02:29.980 There are a lot of complicated financial issues with this massive, basically,
00:02:37.780 he's on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars across these three civil cases combined.
00:02:42.960 But it's even more than that from the interest payments as he waits to appeal.
00:02:49.300 And bonds and money that he's going to have to tie up just to protect himself break all of this down for us.
00:02:55.820 Well, that's exactly right.
00:02:57.720 And we've talked a lot in this podcast about the lawfare that is directed at Donald Trump,
00:03:01.940 about the effort to use the courts, to use the justice system to try to destroy Donald Trump.
00:03:07.220 And understand, the objective here is fundamentally attack on democracy.
00:03:12.160 The objective here is to stop the American people from electing Donald Trump once again as president of the United States.
00:03:18.760 We've seen, in the last nine months, three different verdicts against Trump, all in New York.
00:03:26.820 One for seven figures, one for eight figures, and now one for nine figures.
00:03:31.440 We saw initially a $5 million verdict last year.
00:03:35.400 Then we saw an $83.3 million verdict against Trump last year.
00:03:41.500 And then, just this past week, we saw a $354 million verdict.
00:03:49.380 Now, of all of them, this latest one is the most disgraceful.
00:03:53.720 Why is that?
00:03:55.280 Because there was no victim.
00:03:57.280 In this entire case, there is literally not a person injured, nobody injured.
00:04:02.720 Not only was nobody injured, the alleged victims made money, were happy about it, and wanted to do it again.
00:04:10.440 So, understand what this claim is.
00:04:13.540 So, Donald Trump is a real estate developer.
00:04:15.500 He's developed a lot of real estate.
00:04:17.180 When he develops real estate, he takes a lot of loans.
00:04:19.560 Like every other real estate developer on planet Earth, he takes loans from banks.
00:04:24.100 Now, Letitia James, who is a left-wing partisan Democrat, she ran for office promising to get Donald Trump. 0.97
00:04:33.880 That was her campaign promise.
00:04:35.260 You elect me, and I'm going after Donald Trump.
00:04:37.780 I'm going to get him.
00:04:38.560 So, this was not a fair and objective application of the law.
00:04:42.540 This was a political vendetta from day one.
00:04:45.340 Let me ask you this.
00:04:46.280 How is that not against the law to run for office saying that when you become what is supposed to be a steward of law and order,
00:04:56.960 that you're actually running to lock up someone you disagree with politically?
00:05:01.900 How is that legal in America today?
00:05:03.980 Well, I think that's going to be a very serious claim on appeal, and I think there is a significant chance this gets overturned on appeal, but that's going to take a long time.
00:05:13.240 That the prosecutor on her face is not fair, is not impartial, but is engaged in a partisan political vendetta.
00:05:22.780 She said that before she knew the facts of anything.
00:05:25.220 She had her target.
00:05:26.440 Her target was Donald Trump, and because partisan Democrats in New York hate Donald Trump, that was a good election year message.
00:05:33.100 That got her elected.
00:05:34.200 But understand, so this theory is actually not seeking to put him in jail.
00:05:40.080 It's simply trying to take his money and trying to shut down his business and destroy his business.
00:05:45.140 And the argument is that when he was getting loans from giant global banks, that he overstated the value of his real estate.
00:05:56.280 And look, I don't know if he did or not.
00:05:58.660 If he did, he's probably like every other real estate developer on planet Earth.
00:06:02.520 In my experience, real estate developers pretty much all think their development is worth a ton of money, and reasonable minds can differ.
00:06:10.280 That's part of the real estate business.
00:06:12.460 Now, to whom did he allegedly overstate the value of his properties?
00:06:18.220 Well, it is to these global banks who, mind you, didn't take his word for it.
00:06:23.380 It's not like they said, oh, okay, he says it's worth this.
00:06:26.100 Let's just give him the money.
00:06:26.980 No, they have appraisers.
00:06:28.280 They're sophisticated.
00:06:29.520 They go in and say, yeah, yeah, be quiet.
00:06:31.820 We're going to look at the property.
00:06:33.020 We're going to figure out what we think it's worth, and we're going to value it.
00:06:35.560 That's exactly what they did.
00:06:37.260 The testimony at trial was that the loans he took out, he paid every penny of it with interest.
00:06:44.320 The banks made money.
00:06:46.900 They were very happy about it.
00:06:48.580 They made their own independent assessment of the values of the property.
00:06:51.980 And, in fact, internally, they considered him a, quote, whale.
00:06:57.260 That was their term.
00:06:58.600 And they wanted to do more loans because they were very profitable loans for these banks.
00:07:02.960 And yet, Letitia James' theory is, well, we think the values were overstated, and so, therefore,
00:07:10.800 we're going to make him pay $354 million.
00:07:14.640 Now, we also know the trial was conducted in front of a partisan Democrat trial judge who
00:07:22.440 was smirking and condescending and self-righteous and clearly loathed Donald Trump and loved
00:07:30.020 every minute of being in the limelight that he and Letitia James are getting to go after
00:07:36.160 and hammer Donald Trump.
00:07:38.080 And what we saw was a travesty.
00:07:41.520 It was an abuse of justice.
00:07:43.520 It was using the legal system to attack your political enemies.
00:07:48.100 It was not a fair and neutral application of the law.
00:07:50.740 Well, let's talk also about there's a big X factor here, and there's so many that have
00:07:55.900 asked me this question on my show, which is, where does this 300-plus million go if there's
00:08:03.240 no one that says that they were defrauded by Donald J. Trump or his sons or his businesses?
00:08:10.260 There was no one to, there's no one to make whole here.
00:08:13.720 There's no one claiming that they are deserving of those dollars.
00:08:17.780 So how do they say that Donald Trump defrauded somebody when no one claims they're being defrauded
00:08:22.880 and the people that, in theory, would have been defrauded were actually in court defending
00:08:28.620 Donald Trump, saying, we were not defrauded?
00:08:32.140 Well, it goes to the state of New York.
00:08:34.880 And so Letitia James is just trying to take the money for the state of New York and understand 0.98
00:08:38.960 that even if this is overturned on appeal, the impact on Trump is very significant.
00:08:49.040 Why is that?
00:08:50.080 Because in order to appeal it, you have one of two options.
00:08:54.640 Either you have to put the money up.
00:08:56.740 So you're looking at, with interest, over $400 million that he's got to write a check
00:09:01.980 into escrow for, or he's got to put up a bond.
00:09:07.100 Now, a bond, you go to a bonding company, and typically you put up 20% of the amount of
00:09:12.720 the bond, and then you put up collateral to back up the bond.
00:09:16.700 And either way, it is a very expensive proposition.
00:09:21.900 Now, Trump testified that his cash on hand right now is about $400 million.
00:09:31.760 So assuming that testimony is accurate, and he had, here was the quote, he said, quote,
00:09:36.920 quote, we have, I believe, $400 plus and going up very substantially every month.
00:09:41.600 My biggest expense is probably legal fees, unfortunately.
00:09:45.080 So if you assume he has roughly $400 million, this verdict would take all of his liquid cash.
00:09:52.520 And that is a big blow for anyone, even for someone with the resources Trump has.
00:09:58.340 And that's what it's intended to do.
00:09:59.980 And not only that, this judge went after and penalized, fined Donald Trump Jr., fined Eric
00:10:08.100 Trump, and barred all three of them from doing business in New York, from serving on the board
00:10:15.400 of their own company for three years.
00:10:17.740 This is a punitive result born out of spite.
00:10:21.680 And it is yet another example of the weaponization of our legal system and the willingness of partisan
00:10:29.320 Democrats.
00:10:29.920 We talk a lot on this podcast about what the radical left accuses their opponents of doing
00:10:35.880 is, in fact, what they are doing themselves.
00:10:40.020 In this instance, their favorite line is, we must defend democracy.
00:10:45.940 This is an assault on democracy.
00:10:48.320 It is intended to be an assault on democracy.
00:10:50.860 They are going after him for the same reason that Colorado and Maine are trying to pull
00:10:55.600 him off the ballot, because they're terrified that the American people in November are going
00:11:00.960 to pull the lever for Donald J. Trump and reelect him as president.
00:11:04.060 How significant, Senator, will it be on appeal that New York's Democratic governor came out
00:11:10.420 over the weekend and assured, quote, real estate developers that they won't be targeted for real
00:11:17.820 estate valuations like Trump, that the governor's told New York businesses not to fear about Trump
00:11:26.380 verdict, nothing to worry about, meaning we're just doing it to him.
00:11:30.520 But don't worry, we won't do it to you.
00:11:33.560 So number one, I'm not sure businesses are going to trust that, because what the governor's
00:11:38.500 really saying is, so long as you stay on our good side, so long as you contribute to Democrats,
00:11:43.040 so long as you don't piss us off, we won't go after you and try to bankrupt you, too.
00:11:48.200 But let's be clear, if this verdict is upheld, every real estate developer in New York City,
00:11:54.480 the attorney general, can go after and hit with a similar verdict.
00:11:57.880 I mean, this is a power, the only thing that keeps them from this happening to them is the
00:12:05.500 leniency, is the kindness of the attorney general.
00:12:09.460 That's not very comforting to anyone.
00:12:11.780 But I got to say, beyond that, you know, the governor, you know, I really do think the
00:12:17.140 governor needs to send a letter to the Federal Election Commission acknowledging an in-kind
00:12:22.520 contribution to the Donald J. Trump campaign, and in particular, her statements, I guarantee
00:12:29.880 you, are going to feature prominently in Trump's appeal, because on the face of it, what she's
00:12:35.660 saying is, no, no, no, don't worry, this is a selective prosecution.
00:12:38.940 We only do this to people we hate.
00:12:41.580 This is not applying the law fairly.
00:12:43.700 This is because he's Donald Trump.
00:12:45.460 As long as you're not Donald Trump, you'll be safe.
00:12:48.080 Well, that might be good politics in New York, bare-knuckle politics, but that is not due
00:12:55.740 process of law or the equal protection of laws.
00:12:58.560 Instead, that is deliberately abusing power, and then the governor brazenly admitting it.
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00:14:31.640 Senator, I want to move to the other big story we mentioned earlier, and that is Joe Biden
00:14:36.420 and Afghanistan.
00:14:38.900 I know Joe Biden's got a lot of gaffes.
00:14:41.700 He's gone pro in that.
00:14:45.020 But we're now finding out about the inside of the Biden administration's not just Afghanistan
00:14:51.180 policy, but specifically their indifference towards rescuing American citizens that were
00:14:59.860 in Afghanistan when the pullout happened, which we know was a disaster.
00:15:04.940 How frustrated are you now to find out that this administration pretty much like, oh, yeah,
00:15:10.860 all right, there's some Americans there.
00:15:12.120 We might figure that out later.
00:15:13.860 Well, look, it is consistent with a pattern with the lawfare, with the abuse of power we
00:15:19.060 see against Trump.
00:15:20.900 What is happening is Democrats are putting their own partisan interest above the rule of
00:15:26.540 law.
00:15:26.980 They are putting politics above doing what's right.
00:15:30.100 The same thing is happening with Afghanistan.
00:15:32.100 We've talked a long time about how when it comes to foreign policy, this White House views
00:15:37.060 everything as a domestic political issue.
00:15:39.980 They view everything through a partisan political lens.
00:15:44.140 So why was Afghanistan such a train wreck? 1.00
00:15:47.060 Well, a lot of reasons.
00:15:48.020 But one of the biggest is Joe Biden decided he wanted to have a press release of a complete
00:15:53.920 and total withdrawal by the anniversary of September 11th.
00:15:57.280 So he set an arbitrary deadline.
00:15:59.100 We must be out by September 11th.
00:16:01.080 And once he set that political deadline that was not driven by military realities on the
00:16:07.020 ground, it was driven by a political objective to make the left in the Democrat Party happy.
00:16:12.640 He then disregarded military advice, and in particular military advice that told him that it would
00:16:20.320 require a significant number of troops to secure and keep secure Bagram Airfield, and Bagram
00:16:25.800 Airfield was necessary to have safe evacuations of Americans. 0.98
00:16:29.700 Now, the problem is Biden apparently really didn't care.
00:16:33.200 He had a political objective, and national security was not going to get in the way of that political
00:16:37.800 objective, and so he dictated that the troop drawdown must be significant, and the military
00:16:43.380 was faced with a choice.
00:16:45.200 The number of troops they were allowed to keep, they could either keep Bagram, or they could
00:16:49.620 have troops to go at Kabul International Airport, and they chose the airport in Kabul.
00:16:55.820 They gave up Bagram.
00:16:56.860 Now, Bagram was a multibillion-dollar secure military airfield the United States had built.
00:17:02.080 If we had done the evacuation from Bagram, we would not have seen 13 servicemen and women
00:17:07.520 killed, because Bagram was built to be secure, where terrorists could not murder our American
00:17:13.140 servicemen and women.
00:17:14.200 But because the Biden White House puts politics above national security, they didn't care.
00:17:20.000 Now, what happened here?
00:17:22.660 What happened here is that Biden believed they'd done nothing wrong.
00:17:30.040 And in fact, Politico reported after Afghanistan, quote, no one offered to resign, in large part
00:17:38.320 because the president didn't believe anyone had made a mistake.
00:17:44.740 Ending the war was always going to be messy.
00:17:49.240 And in fact, they continue and say, quote, Biden told his top aides that he stood by them and
00:17:59.140 that they had done their best during a tough situation.
00:18:03.660 Quote, there wasn't even a real possibility of a shakeup, a White House official told the
00:18:10.340 reporter.
00:18:11.260 Now, understand that this was universally acknowledged by everyone as a complete massive screw up.
00:18:17.980 We saw planes taking off in Afghanistan with people clinging to the wheels, running in desperation.
00:18:24.600 We saw terrorists murdering not just 13 servicemen and women, but murdering Afghans who had helped
00:18:30.720 America, torturing Afghans who had helped America. 1.00
00:18:34.560 Every fair and neutral observer watching this recognized it was an absolute debacle.
00:18:40.200 And yet Biden's view was nothing to see here.
00:18:42.520 Hey, this was all great.
00:18:43.360 I get frustrated because people's lives were changed because these decisions, their family
00:18:52.140 trees were changed.
00:18:54.040 There are people that never got to see their kids, their boyfriends or wives or husbands
00:18:59.560 ever again because of what happened.
00:19:02.140 And there used to be we've talked about this before in the show that if you were an American,
00:19:07.980 there was almost like an invisible bubble around you when you're around the world because you
00:19:12.560 don't mess with Americans, because if you did, there was going to be major consequences. 0.98
00:19:19.820 We are seeing that center that that imaginary bubble has basically disappeared.
00:19:25.040 The terrorists aren't afraid of messing with us.
00:19:27.400 They're not afraid of going after American troops in the Middle East.
00:19:30.240 We've seen these 150 plus 160, 170 attacks, whatever the newest number is, since the attacks
00:19:36.160 on Israel against Americans.
00:19:38.880 And we have a president now that they know you can mess with us and we will not respond.
00:19:45.120 How do you gauge the national security threat of just that mindset change?
00:19:49.380 And how do you hold this administration responsible for that?
00:19:53.900 Well, this story gives more details.
00:19:56.580 And in particular, it says that the Pentagon pushed hard to keep troops in Afghanistan and
00:20:03.260 Biden gave a withdrawal order in April of 2021.
00:20:05.940 And then the sides fought about what to do on May 8th, 2021.
00:20:11.040 They were doing a rehearsal for the evacuation operation with Jake Sullivan, who's Biden's national
00:20:17.800 security advisor, with Lloyd Austin, who's the defense secretary, and with the chairman of
00:20:22.880 the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, General Mark Milley.
00:20:25.600 And the Defense Department argued that it would be too dangerous to have the embassy to continue
00:20:34.480 to try to do business as usual.
00:20:36.580 And Brian McKeon, who was the deputy secretary of state, jumped in.
00:20:41.360 He said the diplomats would be just fine.
00:20:43.140 And his quote was, quote, we at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys.
00:20:49.900 And the writer Politico writes that, quote, Milley, that would be General Mark Milley, the chairman
00:20:55.920 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, quote, Milley nearly jumped out of his chair, but restrained
00:21:02.260 himself from shouting how he and many serving in the armed forces had lost friends in war.
00:21:10.120 Austin, the defense secretary, showed no signs of anger, but later told colleagues that he
00:21:15.960 was offended by McKeon's remark.
00:21:19.140 That was the attitude of this administration.
00:21:24.220 And in fact, it wasn't just just the attitude.
00:21:30.140 There is simultaneously a story that is in The Spectator that says, and this is by Matthew
00:21:38.660 Foldy, quote, at the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden administration officials said
00:21:46.520 behind closed doors that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the National Security
00:21:53.480 Advisor, Jake Sullivan, quote, don't give a F, and F was not abbreviated, it was spelled
00:22:01.180 out fully, about rescuing Americans from the clutches of the Taliban.
00:22:06.800 The admission came on a late August 2021 phone call held between the Department of Defense
00:22:13.400 and Congressional Democrats, based on The Spectator's review of contemporaneous text messages.
00:22:20.360 During the conversation, a Pentagon official acknowledged in response to frustration from
00:22:25.600 Democrats that two of the most, two of the senior most officials working on the evacuation,
00:22:34.060 Blinken and Sullivan, were indifferent to the plight of their fellow Americans.
00:22:41.220 Think about that for a second.
00:22:44.340 That is reporting that the Biden White House didn't give, I'm going to sanitize it and say 0.78
00:22:52.140 a damn, about rescuing Americans from the Taliban. 0.83
00:22:57.960 That is this partisan political White House. 1.00
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00:23:31.560 You know, this also goes to the next topic we were going to talk about, and that deals obviously
00:23:38.700 with Russia and Vladimir Putin killing his, in essence, top political adversary this past
00:23:46.800 week.
00:23:47.360 But before I get that, I want to go back to, does this also explain when we were getting
00:23:52.880 out a WNBA player because it was high profile?
00:23:55.800 We left another American behind there in Russia.
00:23:58.400 Why would you be afraid of Joe Biden if this is your mentality in Afghanistan with Americans?
00:24:06.040 Does an American life in a jail and prison really matter? 0.99
00:24:10.280 Well, unfortunately for Biden, it's all politics.
00:24:13.080 And so the Biden administration focused on a WNBA player because that was high profile 1.00
00:24:18.360 and that was consistent with their political objectives.
00:24:20.640 But we're more than happy to leave other Americans, including servicemen and women, behind because
00:24:27.100 that was not their priority.
00:24:29.400 There's a consistent theme about it.
00:24:31.800 It's an elevation of partisan politics.
00:24:35.240 And look, at the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, I said then that the weakness and the incompetence
00:24:41.960 displayed by the Biden White House has made the world much, much more dangerous.
00:24:47.220 That every enemy of America is looking to the Oval Office and is taking the measure of the
00:24:53.960 commander in chief.
00:24:55.180 And I believe that all of them concluded that the commander in chief was weak and feckless
00:25:00.800 and ineffective.
00:25:01.840 In other words, they concluded what the Biden Department of Justice just argued in writing, 0.78
00:25:06.720 that he was a feeble old man with a limited memory.
00:25:10.160 And what I said at the time of the Afghanistan debacle is the chances of Russia invading Ukraine 0.72
00:25:18.000 just increased tenfold and the chances of China invading Taiwan just increased tenfold.
00:25:27.120 Bad guys do not fear weakness.
00:25:30.860 Weakness encourages them to be worse.
00:25:33.640 And that's what Biden has done to every enemy of America.
00:25:36.140 Let's talk about what's happening also with this adversary to Vladimir Putin and give a
00:25:42.820 little context here so people understand.
00:25:45.580 The Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei for now years.
00:25:52.000 You go back to Joe Biden and he even went on the record in Geneva, Switzerland, back on June
00:25:59.980 the 16th of 2021, saying that there would be major consequences if he died in captivity
00:26:07.400 by the by the Russians, by Putin.
00:26:10.340 I want to play this from June 16, 2021.
00:26:13.740 Mr. President, just a quick follow on the same theme of consequences.
00:26:16.280 You said just now that you spoke to him a lot about human rights.
00:26:19.420 What did you say would happen if opposition later, Alexei Navalny dies?
00:26:22.420 I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia.
00:26:30.840 I'll go back to the same point.
00:26:32.960 What do you think happens when he's saying it's not about hurting Navalny?
00:26:37.660 It's all the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny.
00:26:43.040 And then he dies in prison.
00:26:46.280 I pointed out to him that it matters a great deal.
00:26:49.880 I mean, Senator, that was 2021.
00:26:55.540 What changed?
00:26:57.800 Well, actually, nothing changed.
00:27:00.280 And I'm going to explain in a minute that he didn't believe what he was saying then.
00:27:03.520 But but before I explain that, let's play what Biden is saying now, because even he is 0.99
00:27:09.240 admitting today that what he said then was full of crap. 0.98
00:27:12.640 Listen to what he's saying right now. 0.98
00:27:14.320 Now is the time for even greater unity among our NATO allies to stand up to the threat that
00:27:18.780 Putin's Russia opposes.
00:27:20.660 You know, I send my deepest condolences to Alexei staff and supporters who are going to
00:27:25.500 continue his work despite this loss, despite all of Putin's desperate attempts to stamp out
00:27:30.380 the opposition and most of all to his family, especially to his wife, his daughter and his
00:27:36.300 son who already sacrificed so much for their family and a shared dream for a better future
00:27:42.440 for Russia.
00:27:43.060 Now, that was him making his first statement at the White House.
00:27:49.180 But then the media asked him that question.
00:27:52.280 Hey, what happened to what you said three years ago?
00:27:55.160 First, was this an assassination?
00:27:58.380 The answer is that we don't know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death
00:28:05.140 of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.
00:28:10.200 And to be clear, you warned Vladimir Putin when he were in Geneva of devastating consequences
00:28:16.840 if Navalny died in Russian custody.
00:28:19.760 What consequences should he and Russia face? 0.86
00:28:23.200 That was three years ago.
00:28:24.260 In the meantime, they faced a hell of a lot of consequences.
00:28:26.600 They've lost and or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers.
00:28:31.340 I mean, Senator, he doesn't answer the questions.
00:28:34.720 He says, that was three years ago.
00:28:36.360 And now because the war with Ukraine, well, they've had some somehow some consequences that
00:28:41.340 have nothing to do with killing this individual.
00:28:44.840 Well, he did answer the question, actually.
00:28:46.820 And his answer is nothing that that he's so weak, that he's so ineffective, that he's not
00:28:51.100 going to do anything.
00:28:52.100 And Putin knows that everybody else knows that Navalny knew that.
00:28:55.980 So last week, when when when the news of Navalny's death broke, here's the statement that I put
00:29:01.400 out, quote, the Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei Navalny for years to stop his
00:29:07.560 criticism of Vladimir Putin's corruption and autocracy and to intimidate the Russian people
00:29:13.740 from similar criminal criticism.
00:29:16.520 Tragically, they appear to have finally succeeded in murdering him.
00:29:20.460 We must ensure that they will never succeed in silencing him.
00:29:26.440 The regime interprets weakness from the United States as appeasement and has only escalated its
00:29:32.760 oppression in recent years.
00:29:35.060 The Russian people are entitled to express their views peacefully without fear of retribution.
00:29:41.120 And I will work with my colleagues to hold accountable those in the Russian regime responsible
00:29:46.760 for this atrocity.
00:29:48.580 So that's what I put out.
00:29:49.640 But I want to go back because I said that that Biden didn't mean the tough consequences
00:29:57.220 when he said that.
00:29:58.420 How do I know that?
00:30:00.020 Because if you go back to 2021, you go back to the beginning of the Biden administration
00:30:04.820 where Vladimir Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny, actually poisoned him in August of 2020.
00:30:11.460 And he was poisoned with a Novichok class nerve agent, which is the same class that was used
00:30:19.920 by Russia in the 2018 assassination attempt against a former British intelligence agency.
00:30:27.980 It's a strategy of murder that the Russians are fond of poisoning. 1.00
00:30:33.540 And at the time, Biden announced really mild sanctions on Russia, said, OK, we're going to slap your hand.
00:30:42.940 And what I called for at the time was sanctioning and shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
00:30:50.520 Now, remember, Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a pipeline that Putin was building that went straight from Russia to Germany.
00:30:58.020 It circumvented Ukraine.
00:30:59.220 The entire point of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was to enable Russia to get its natural gas to Europe
00:31:04.780 without needing to go through the pipelines in Ukraine.
00:31:08.280 Why did Putin want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline?
00:31:11.520 So he could invade Ukraine. 0.93
00:31:14.820 I authored the sanctions that shut Nord Stream 2 down.
00:31:19.000 I passed them into law in December of 2019, got overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, got overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.
00:31:29.280 Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.
00:31:33.460 And listen to this.
00:31:35.600 Putin stopped building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline literally the day, the very same day that Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation.
00:31:46.480 The pipeline was done.
00:31:48.300 That was December of 2019, December of 2020.
00:31:52.680 I passed another set of sanctions legislation on Nord Stream 2, again, with overwhelming bipartisan support.
00:31:59.260 Again, Donald Trump signed it into law.
00:32:01.200 The pipeline remained dead.
00:32:03.500 Now, fast forward to January 2021.
00:32:06.240 On January 20th, Joe Biden takes the oath of office.
00:32:10.340 He becomes president.
00:32:12.040 Four days later, for January 24th, 2021.
00:32:16.920 Putin resumes deep sea construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
00:32:21.300 Literally four days into the Biden presidency.
00:32:25.000 Why?
00:32:25.680 Because Biden was already showing weakness.
00:32:28.220 Putin understood Biden was weak.
00:32:30.480 And by the way, that foreshadowing of weakness was true.
00:32:33.840 It was accurate. 0.89
00:32:34.780 Why do we know that?
00:32:35.620 Because several months later, Biden formally waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
00:32:41.480 He gave Vladimir Putin a multi-billion dollar gift.
00:32:45.680 He let him complete that pipeline.
00:32:48.300 And that pipeline, waiving those sanctions, is why Putin invaded Ukraine.
00:32:53.600 It is Biden's fault.
00:32:55.100 But when Navalny, when Putin went after Navalny, I called on Biden.
00:32:59.260 I said, all right, you gave Biden this gift of Nord Stream 2.
00:33:03.340 How about now when Navalny's in jail?
00:33:05.700 How about now impose the sanctions on Nord Stream 2?
00:33:09.120 How about now grow a backbone and stand up to Putin?
00:33:14.880 And Biden refused to do so.
00:33:18.260 Instead, put little slap of the wrist sanctions on it.
00:33:21.000 And so when he said severe consequences, he didn't mean it in 2021.
00:33:25.860 And he's admitted it now.
00:33:27.920 The consequences he has in mind are nothing.
00:33:30.440 And you know what?
00:33:31.660 Putin will continue to behave worse, will continue to be more oppressive,
00:33:35.120 will continue to be more of a threat.
00:33:37.980 China, Xi, will continue to behave worse, to be more oppressive, to be more of a threat.
00:33:42.420 North Korea will. 0.98
00:33:43.600 Venezuela will.
00:33:44.540 Iran will. 0.99
00:33:45.620 Every enemy of America.
00:33:47.160 Hamas will. 1.00
00:33:48.000 Hezbollah will. 0.99
00:33:48.700 All of them, when we have a weak commander-in-chief,
00:33:53.120 America is at greater peril and every one of our allies is at greater peril.
00:33:57.500 I want to ask you one question about sanctions real quick.
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00:35:18.540 Senator, final question for you on sanctions.
00:35:21.240 What is the point of having sanctions?
00:35:23.540 And you mentioned multiple countries there that we have sanctions on, that we're not doing
00:35:28.340 anything.
00:35:28.680 We're not enforcing the sanctions.
00:35:30.020 And if the president and his administration will not enforce the sanctions, is there any
00:35:35.800 checks and balances that can come into play on the House, the Senate, congressional oversight?
00:35:41.760 Because if you've got the sanctions and they're worthless because you don't enforce them,
00:35:46.920 who does that fall on?
00:35:48.100 And can it change?
00:35:48.980 Well, it certainly can change, and Congress can force the president to do it.
00:35:53.380 And the best example of that, let's go back to Nord Stream 2, and I'll finish the story.
00:35:58.660 When Biden waived the sanctions, my response is I put a hold on every single nominee at the State
00:36:04.400 Department.
00:36:04.880 I block them in the Senate.
00:36:06.140 And it caused the Biden administration to go nuts.
00:36:08.500 It caused Senate Democrats to go nuts.
00:36:10.280 And I said, listen, Joe Biden is handing a massive gift to Vladimir Putin.
00:36:16.920 He is causing war in Europe.
00:36:18.840 He is causing Russia to prepare to invade Ukraine.
00:36:22.180 This makes no sense, and it is endangering Europe, our allies, and it's endangering America.
00:36:27.660 For all of 2021, I had those holds in place.
00:36:31.580 In December of 2021, I cut a deal with Chuck Schumer.
00:36:35.980 I let, I think it was 34 of those holds go, in exchange for scheduling a vote on new sanctions
00:36:44.240 on Nord Stream 2 in January of 2022.
00:36:47.960 Schumer agreed, so I forced the vote on the Senate floor.
00:36:51.140 Now, when the vote came up in January of 2022, the week before the vote, President Zelensky in
00:36:58.260 Ukraine publicly begged the United States Senate, please, please, please pass Cruz's sanctions
00:37:05.880 legislation.
00:37:07.240 This legislation is the last best hope to stop Russia from invading Ukraine to avoid war. 0.78
00:37:16.420 That same week, the government of Poland put out a formal statement pleading with the United
00:37:23.320 States Senate to pass my sanctions legislation.
00:37:26.600 Poland said, if you do not do so, Russia will invade Ukraine.
00:37:31.720 Now, Ben, that is highly unusual.
00:37:33.380 Foreign countries generally do not put out statements on particular votes in the Senate
00:37:38.620 asking the Senate to do something.
00:37:40.680 In this case, both Ukraine and Poland put out those statements.
00:37:44.180 The day of the vote, Joe Biden came 16 blocks from the White House down to Capitol Hill,
00:37:50.520 and he went to the Democratic Senate lunch, and he personally lobbied the Democrat senators.
00:37:57.940 This was the first time he had done so since he became president.
00:38:05.900 And he came there to lobby them.
00:38:08.380 His request was, please, please, please vote against Cruz's sanctions legislation.
00:38:16.000 Please vote for Russia and Putin. 0.54
00:38:18.140 So twice when I had introduced my legislation and passed it to law, all the Democrats had
00:38:26.560 come together and supported it.
00:38:27.980 So they were on record twice supporting my sanctions.
00:38:33.000 In January 2022, because of Biden's personal lobbying, 44 Democrat senators flipped their votes.
00:38:40.220 And as a result, a month later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and we have still today the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
00:38:58.500 Look, I'm someone who hates war.
00:39:02.760 I am very reluctant to go to war, but I agree with Ronald Reagan.
00:39:08.840 I agree with Winston Churchill.
00:39:10.320 I agree with Donald Trump in the philosophy of peace through strength,
00:39:14.040 that the best way you avoid war is being strong enough your enemies don't want to mess with you.
00:39:18.800 And sanctions can be a very powerful tool for avoiding war.
00:39:23.320 What the Biden White House is all about when it comes to our enemies is weakness and appeasement.
00:39:28.460 And waiving these sanctions directly caused the war.
00:39:34.860 Once the pipeline was complete, Putin's view was he could invade because he could still get his gas to Europe,
00:39:42.180 even if the pipelines in Ukraine were destroyed.
00:39:46.280 No doubt.
00:39:47.200 Don't forget this week.
00:39:48.380 It's going to be a big week with breaking news.
00:39:50.120 We're going to keep you updated on all of it.
00:39:52.180 Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we do this show.
00:39:53.780 And don't forget, you can listen to my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson podcast and those in-between days.
00:39:59.200 I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news.
00:40:01.420 So make sure you subscribe to that, the Ben Ferguson podcast as well.
00:40:04.620 And we will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
00:40:09.000 This is an iHeart podcast.
00:40:11.880 Guaranteed human.